Category Archives: Abundant Life

As I mentioned in a previous post, lately, I’ve recently seen a number of memes along these variations: “Jesus spoke more about money than any other topic” or “Jesus spoke more about money than (three or four subjects) combined.”

The implication is that if Jesus thought money was important enough to devote so much of his time to, then it’s important to us and we are justified in thinking about it.

His parables, though, aren’t about money; he just uses money sometimes as an illustration of a heavenly concept. Read my previous blog here.

Jesus does, however, speak pretty plainly about money – it’s just not anything we really want to hear, because he doesn’t often speak of it favorable terms.

When actually speaking about money, and not using it as an illustration to make a point about a different issue, here are the things Jesus had to say: the poor will be blessed, but woe to the rich; don’t take any money or provisions on a mission trip; give away everything you have so you can follow him; that only through God’s miraculous intervention can the rich enter heaven; and don’t worry about money, because it is God’s job to provide for your needs. Then he also went on a rampage in the temple against those who were selling animals there, including dumping the money all over the ground.

Did he speak positively about money? Sort of. He defended the woman of ill repute who anointed him with expensive perfume; he praised Zacchaeus when he decided to give half his wealth to the poor and repay those he’d cheated, with interest; and he honored the faith of the poor widow who gave the only two small coins she had to the temple treasury. He also approved the paying of both the temple tax and the government’s taxes.

Then there was his enigmatic story in Luke 16 about the shrewd money manager, where Jesus appears to be telling people to use money to win friends and influence people (16:9). In context, though, he probably meant something a bit different, since he designates worldly wealth as unrighteous and the Pharisees, who loved money, sneered at his teaching (16:14). I believe he is illustrating the importance of the true riches of heaven as opposed to the money the world reveres, and that we can’t misuse something of the world and expect to then be trusted with the real riches of the kingdom.

“You cannot serve both God and money.”

The bottom line for Jesus, though, can be found in Luke 16:13 and in Matthew 6:24, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. He says quite clearly that we have a choice to make when it comes to our wealth: “You cannot serve both God and money.”

The word translated as money is the Greek word mamona (translated in the KJV as Mammon). But more than money, it can mean wealth or assets. It has a sense of being an animate object, of being almost godlike. You could call it Mr. Money.

Mr. Money is a nice-looking guy, with a $200 haircut, Armani suits and Italian loafers. He has promised to care for your needs, to give you all the happiness and comfort you desire. He even gives you some nice bonuses, like the occasional filet mignon dinner and a cruise to the Bahamas. However, he is a demanding taskmaster, requiring your exclusive services or you don’t get the things you desire. He has no patience for you having outside interests, like God.

Before long, you find yourself in the exact situation Jesus described – choosing which master to serve.

Does God ask you to be more involved in church? Mr. Money says, no, you need to work overtime or you won’t be able to take that Disney World vacation. Does God want you to help someone in need? Mr. Money says, no, you won’t be able to make the monthly payments on your 4,000-square-foot house, that shiny new car and the jet skis. Has God asked you to take a stand on an issue? No, Mr. Money says, that could cause you to lose your job and then you’ll have to take your kids out of the private Christian school.

Before long, you find yourself in the exact situation Jesus described – choosing which master to serve.

You think, I could still give time and money to the church and have money for myself, right? It just wouldn’t be as much money and as much time for God, but still, it’s better than nothing.

No, it isn’t. Because Jesus calls us to give all our allegiance to the Father, and partial isn’t all. We really do have to choose between God and Mr. Money, two beings who require our full devotion. We can’t split it.

Jesus has little to say about earning money. In fact, he says virtually nothing about having a job or making a good income, and storing up treasure for the future, like retirement, is viewed as foolish (Luke 12:13-34). He does, however, talk about the importance of relying on God for our needs and storing up treasure in heaven, the kind of treasure that is gathered while following Jesus rather than anything monetary.

And, for the record, I don’t believe that Jesus spoke more about money than anything else.

I don’t believe that Jesus thinks earning money is wrong, or that he doesn’t want us to have jobs. And I do believe God does reward some Christians with wealth, knowing that they will use it for the greater good of the kingdom rather than greedily for themselves. The bottom line always is, where is our allegiance? With God, or with Mr. Money?

And, for the record, I don’t believe that Jesus spoke more about money than anything else. Without quantifying it numerically, I would guess that the majority of his teaching revolved around the theme of what is inside a person – the heart – matters more than outward appearances. He also spoke a lot about the kingdom of God and the radical lifestyle it requires. And he spent a good bit of his time talking about faith – praising those who exhibit it and criticizing those who don’t.

Money was a frequent subject, but more often than not, he spoke of the benefits of ridding ourselves of its influence, and never about making or having more of it.

Instead, Jesus commands us to be fully devoted to serving God and God will take care of providing for whatever physical needs we have. Mr. Money can take a hike.

Money – getting more, investing it for later, giving it away and, of course, spending it – is top of mind for most Americans. We work 40-plus hours a week, 80-plus if both spouses are employed, to move one step ahead of where we are and one step closer to where we believe we ought to be.

So it’s no surprise that Christians turn to the Bible for advice on money. And that’s also why, lately, I’ve seen a number of memes along these variations: “Jesus spoke more about money than any other topic” or “Jesus spoke more about money than (three or four subjects) combined.”

The implication is that if Jesus thought money was important enough to devote so much of his time to, then it’s important to us and we are justified in thinking about it.

I did a little research, something you should always do when faced with these “facts” (and I hope you don’t believe that everything contained in a meme is a fact). First, I looked to see what research people on the internet had already done. I found a wide range of thoughts.

Jesus did indeed use money and financial situations in his parables, but his parables were always about something heavenly.

One commentator on the internet averred that 16 of Jesus’ 38 parables were about how to handle money; another assured us that 11 of the 39 parables Jesus tells are about money. It was interesting that there wasn’t even an agreement on the number of parables, let alone how many dealt with money.

So then I turned to the actual words of Jesus. And here’s how many parables I found dealt with the wise use of money – zero.

Wait, you may say, you know at least one of them was, the one about the wise stewards. And what about the woman sweeping her floor looking for a lost coin?

Jesus did indeed use money and financial situations in his parables, but his parables were always about something heavenly – the kingdom of God, the end times, God’s celebration of the lost being found or right living. He used farming, shepherding, harvesting, weddings and other every day earthly situations, including finances, to illustrate those heavenly concepts.

Jesus is not talking about an investment strategy to beef up your portfolio.

Let’s take the story of the wise stewards, for example, most famously seen in Matt. 25:14-30 (also in Luke 19). I have heard Christian money managers and investors use this story to illustrate that Jesus, indeed, is a proponent of the stock market, at least of mutual funds. I have nothing against Christian investing or money managers, but context is very important here to understand that Jesus is not talking about an investment strategy to beef up your portfolio.

In chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew, Jesus is talking about the end times, including some of the signs to watch for when the time is growing near. Then he uses a couple of parables to illustrate the importance of being ready when the he returns.

He starts with a homeowner who was not watchful and let a thief break into his home, then a slave who was put in charge of other slaves and treated them cruelly, followed by a story about 10 virgins who went to wait for the groom, but only half of them were smart enough to take enough oil to keep their lamps lit the entire night. After that comes the parable of the wise stewards, which is followed by an illustration of separating sheep from goats.

In that context, the parable of the stewards is simply about being wise about your time on earth so that you are ready when the Lord returns. If you use the parable of the stewards to say Jesus is teaching about the wise investment of money, then you’d have to say the other parables are teaching about the need for adequate home security, good leadership, astute wedding planning and building separate pens for animals.

No, all of them, including the parable of the stewards, are about being prepared for the second coming of Christ.

I’ve written before about the principle of interpreting a Bible passage by the context it appears in, and in the larger context of the entire Bible itself. If not, we can end up with some faulty theology. The parable of the stewards – and Jesus’ view of money in general – can lead to some skewed viewpoints if not seen within the context of the whole Bible.

In case you missed it, this past Saturday (Sept. 23) the world was supposed to come to a screeching halt. A biblical numerologist (how do you get a job like that?) had figured it out, based on passages in Luke and various numerology codes.

Since I’m writing this the following Thursday, he was obviously wrong. Just as the hundreds of people before him were when they picked a date for the end of the world.

Even though they may not have a specific date in mind, many people today see the signs of the end times in the world events around them – wars and rumors of war, hurricanes, celestial events, the increasing decadence of the human race. Just as people did 100 years ago, and 200 years ago and 500 years ago and especially at the end of 999 A.D. when many people quit working and sold property for the expected return of Christ on Jan. 1, 1000.

Even the apostles, in their various letters, alluded to the end times being near. Yet here we still are.

One thing I know for sure – eventually someone will be right. The world will come to an end at some point.

I rarely think about the end times, primarily because I have no control over the end of the world, nor do I expect God to consult me on what might be a good time for it. However, the prediction from this past week, some comments my pastor made during a conversation and reading Jesus’ words about the end times in Matthew 24 and 25 during my daily Bible reading caused me to think about it more than normal.

All of us will face an end time, when death claims us and our life on earth ends.

So here’s what I predict: Since I am almost 59, I predict the end times to happen within 40 years or so. If you’re 40, I predict the end times within 60 years, and if you’re 20, I’d say the end will come in about 80 years.

Because let’s face it, whether Christ returns in all his glory tomorrow or a thousand years from now, all of us will face an end time, when death claims us and our life on earth ends.

In Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus’ message is that we need to be prepared for the end because we don’t know when it’s going to happen. We don’t know when our end will come, either. But we need to be prepared for the end, whether it’s the cataclysmic last gasp for everyone, or simply our own dying breath.

Every day people all across our country die suddenly in car accidents, of heart attacks and strokes, are murdered or expire in some other tragic fashion. Obviously, they didn’t know their end was coming any more than we know when Christ will return. But even people who are terminally ill don’t know the exact day or hour their body will cease to function.

So we need to be prepared at all times, so that when we meet Christ face to face he can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

People speak about the end times darkly, because of the promised hardships and pain. But Jesus promised an abundant life, which began on earth the moment we received God’s grace and started following him and continues throughout eternity. We can live life full of joy here knowing that whenever the end times come we will receive an abundance of riches through Christ in the heavenly places.

In the famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an albatross (a large sea bird) leads a ship to safety. But soon after their rescue, the main character, the mariner, shoots the albatross, and the ship is again in peril.

To punish the mariner for his churlish action, the ship’s crew forces him to wear the dead albatross around his neck. As he watches the crew succumb to death, the albatross serves as a constant reminder that he is to blame. Today we use the term, “wearing an albatross around one’s neck” to signify a psychological burden, often brought on by one’s own foolish or careless action.

Unfortunately, many Christians today live as if they are that ancient mariner, wearing their guilt around their necks like a big dead bird. I became aware of that recently when, within a span of a few days, I had a friend tell me he still dealt with guilt about things he’d done more than two decades before; another friend confided that she still felt shame for actions committed years before; and another person talked about the anguish he felt daily about the sins he’d committed.

Understand, these are all devout Christians who have been walking with the Lord for decades, who have confessed these sins repeatedly, yet they still function as if they are bound and condemned for them.

I have a feeling these are not isolated cases. But by worrying about, thinking about and feeling guilt and shame about our past sins, we are seriously impairing our ability to live the abundant life Jesus promised.

I am set free and no longer under condemnation, so why should I feel guilt or shame?

It’s not that I don’t understand where my friends are coming from: I have plenty of sinful behavior in my past and I regret having caused God the pain of my actions. I still suffer from some of the consequences of those actions.

But I no longer feel guilt or shame for them. I choose instead to believe the truth of the words in Romans 8:1-2: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” This is one of the greatest statements in the Bible. I am set free and no longer under condemnation, so why should I feel guilt or shame? And it’s not just the Romans passage that gives me that confidence.

Jesus came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18)

God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12)

Jesus set us free to have freedom (Gal. 5:1)

God sweeps away our sins and remembers them no more (Isa. 43:25)

God has taken our blood red sins and washed them white as snow (Isa. 1:18)

The Lord will never charge us with our sins (Rom. 4:8)

Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice once for all sins (Heb. 7:27)

There are a number of other scriptures in the same vein – that once we are in Christ Jesus, once we are following him as our Lord – all of our sins have not only been forgiven, they have been removed completely from our account. We are free and we are washed clean.

But, you may argue, you don’t know what I’ve done in my past. No, I don’t, but it doesn’t matter. Really.

What matters as a Christian is not what you have done but what Christ has done for you. No evil of your past can compare with the abundant life of your present or the glory of your future.

If God no longer condemns you, why should you condemn yourself?

The difference is where you choose to turn your eyes and ears. Will you keep looking behind you at how you have failed, or will you focus on Christ and how he has overcome? Will you look at your weakness, or his power? Will you accept the lies of the enemy, or listen to the voice of the Great Shepherd calling you to the truth?

As a follower of Christ you no longer have to be captive to shame and guilt for your past actions. All you have to do is accept the truth that you are free and no longer under condemnation. If God no longer condemns you, why should you condemn yourself?

The ancient mariner could never get over the guilt of killing that albatross, forced to wander the earth to tell his tale of woe. But as a Christian, your guilt has been removed. Christ died for that guilt so that you, unlike the ancient mariner, can live a life of victory.

Gary Kauffman is Bible teacher, Christian life coach and freelance writer/photographer living in North Augusta, South Carolina.